Digital Culture: Rock n' Roll

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The music made me do it.

By Alex Wollenschlaeger

A lot of pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson, 1989.

The Jethro Tull flutist may have been talking about music, but there's more than a fair bit of overlap with the current games industry. But away from the less admirable parallels, music and games have developed a healthy, comfortable relationship over the past two decades, going from the bleeps and bloops of the NES and SNES eras to the booming surround sound of the next generation of consoles.

Perhaps the most important role for music right now is as a catalyst for bringing in new gamers. Nintendo and Sony have both used music in distinct ways to help expand what is meant by the term 'videogame'.

Nintendo's campaign is centred on experiences like Donkey Konga for GameCube, a series that should by all rights have done much better than it has. The games tapped into the success of Namco's Taiko no Tetsujin series, which sold like gangbusters in Japan. The original arcade game was strategically positioned at the entrances to the neon wonderlands, drawing in those who just want to beat the hell out of a massive drum.

Nintendo struck out - commercially speaking - with its most recent musical escapade too. The company's presentation at E3 this year was bizarrely low on must-have games, but it did show off one of its most promising non-games - Electroplankton. The DJ-produced song that played at the conference may have gone over the heads of just about everyone in the audience, but those same people were drawn back into the fold when they actually got their hands on the game later during the show.

Music and games are intertwined at many levels.

Making music is a soulful and oftentimes painful process but Electroplankton helps to bring the creative process to the musically ill equipped. Manipulating the tiny plankton is simple and within seconds you'll be making noise. The genius comes when you start to fiddle and discover ever more pleasing nudges you can give the system. Not everyone has the patience or the ability to learn how to play an instrument but anyone can pick up Electroplankton and make pleasing sounds.

But as hard as Nintendo has tried, the company has been overshadowed in the musical race for the mainstream by Sony - specifically SCEE's London studio, home to EyeToy: Play, Singstar and the upcoming Buzz!: The Music Quiz.

At the recent International Games Summit in London, all three hardware vendors spoke of the need to broaden the reach of the industry by bringing in non-gamers. Sony's London studio has managed to do just that. The developer's three mainstream franchises were designed with average people in mind - people who wouldn't think of picking up a controller. Not surprisingly, none of the games uses a traditional controller - the EyeToy games use the EyeToy camera, Singstar uses USB microphones and Buzz!: The Music Quiz uses USB game show-style buzzers.

Sony's David Reeves likes Buzz's chances.

The result? There are around 4 million EyeToy cameras in homes across the world and the Singstar franchise recently topped the 2 million mark in Europe. Buzz!: The Music Quiz, which is simple in concept (it's a virtual game show based on music trivia), is almost sure to be another hit for Sony.

The diverse needs of the various markets that together make up the European region is one of the driving forces behind projects such as Singstar. In Germany, for instance, analyst group Screen Digest saw a significant rise in PlayStation 2 sales with the introduction of non-game music titles. By battling with the problem of making the right kind of experience for the right market, SCEE has stumbled upon brands that have broader appeal.

But chasing the mainstream can only go so far, and it's something that leaves little for ardent gamers. But once again SCEE stepped in with a fantastic series that would draw in the uninitiated with its bright colours and thumping beats.

UK-based Harmonix's Frequency brought gamers something new. Again, the concept was simple (tap in tune with the music, activating individual instruments and finally the whole song), but it required a deftness not often seen in seemingly throwaway concepts. The debate over whether Frequency or its more rock-inspired sequel Amplitude is the better game rages on, but none of the gamers who have sat transfixed by the patterns and harmonies of either game will dispute their ability to put you in a zen-like state. While Harmonix has been relatively quiet about its next game, Guitar Hero, all signs point to it doing the same thing for rock music as the developer's previous games have done for their respective genres.